Google made some enemies after the controversial launch of their social networking service Buzz. One of those groups was the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) who has now filed a complaint with the FCC accusing Google of violating federal consumer protection law with the service. At the core of the complaint is Google’s accused breach of a consumer’s expectation of privacy.

The Buzz service received a lot of criticism when launched because Gmail users had no ability to opt-out of the service. Everyone was automatically put into the service which created a public profile that included a list of common contacts for the user. In fairness to Google, they have made attempts to address security concerns since the initial launch of Buzz. Just last week we reported some privacy tweaks made by Google. This included bringing more attention to the opt-out option regarding the public display of common contacts, the ability to block followers, and some refinement around which followers and people you follow appear on your public profile. Google also changed Buzz from an auto-follow to an auto-suggest model. Even with those changes EPIC believes Google should do more.

In EPIC’s complaint, the group seeks to have the FCC:

Compel Google to make Google Buzz a fully opt-in service for Gmail users;
Compel Google to cease using Gmail users’ private address book contacts to compile social networking lists;
Compel Google to give Google Buzz users more control over their information, by allowing users to accept or reject followers from the outset; and
Provide such other relief as the Commission finds necessary and appropriate.

Boy, Google has had a couple of missteps lately. First, they launch their Nexus One smartphone only to be blasted over providing support only via email and charging what some considered to be a high equipment replacement fee (ERF). Google turned things around by later providing phone support and lowering their ERF.

The process seemed to be the same with Google Buzz. They launch the product only to be blasted about the lack of consideration for user privacy. They then try to appease their users with changes to address the privacy concerns.

I can only hope that Google has learned a lesson that it’s good to innovate, but it’s also okay to think about deployment too. Even the best products and services can be marred by poor execution to market.

Reader Comments

jqp

Boy, Google has had a couple of missteps lately.

There is really only one misstep — their business model. It’s entirely built around advertising. The only way to make advertising more effective is my circumventing the consumers privacy. Hence, almost everything they do is aimed at achieving this.

Email, social networking and mobile communications are of interest to Google only to the extent that it helps them understand and profile you and target you more accurately with advertising.

hodar

Brian, a misstep is dropping a server, or losing the ability to retrieve email for a day or so. A misstep is dropping emails after hitting your allotted storage space without issuing a warning.

Publishing your private address book to make a social networking list is a violation. Automatically allowing every person in your private contact list to view or ‘follow’ your profile is a violation.

A violation of this magnitude is criminal, this is like Verizon publishing every phone number you have dialed, and sharing the phone numbers stored in your cell phone.

There was an implied level of trust when I opened my gmail account. I trusted my personal email to remain personal, I expected my friends and family to be able to rest assured that I would not share their private information, and I expected them to show me the same consideration.

Enter the company who’s motto of “Do no evil” to set up a program without notice, without an ‘opt-in’ and without the ability to control who can ‘follow’ their user – and one finds their motto to be ‘evil’ in that it is maliciously deceptive.

I hope EPIC takes a HUGE bite out of Google. If I were in charge of Google, I’d have a pile of termination papers that would reach to my knee – starting with the VP in charge of that division, and going down to every level that had a voice in bringing Buzz to the masses, and saw no problem with violating their customer’s trust this aggreviesly.

jqp

@hodarA violation of this magnitude is criminal…

On the contrary, according to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, those who expect privacy are suspect; “If you have something you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it”.

In other words, there is no money in privacy.

http://www.nooksurfer.com NookSurfer

It’s only been what….one plus week and FCC is on them already. When they had the soft launch, I already had a feeling this thing is set for doom.